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In recent weeks, the president of has hired threse salespeople to call on southeas Wisconsin businesses in an effort to drum up corporats customersfor Bartolotta’s upscale restaurants and caterinvg business. “Normally we are order takers and we sit back and let peoples cometo us,” Bartolotta said at The Businesd Journal’s “Beat the Recession” event May 8. “Bu t we can’t wait anymore. We have to go out and generatethe Bartolotta, known for his upscal restaurants such as Bacchus, Lake Park Bistro and Ristorante is venturing into a new business area with planx to open a custard and burger stands this summer on Milwaukee’w lakefront.
The restaurant will be in the North Poinf snack bar on Lincoln Memorial In addition, Bartolotta recently entered into a partnership to operatse a restaurant at . If successful, he may expandx it to other airports around theUnited “I felt we needed to become a little more well-roundedd as a company,” Bartolotta said. “We are known as a fine-dininf provider, but there are a couple of projects that we have out therd that are a littlemore fun, a littlw more casual. “Right now the money supply is tight for a lot of so they are lookingfor options. We’v all heard about the McDonald’s story about how successfulo they have become becausre ofthe $1 menu.
In my business, people tend to trad e down. When it comes to looking at the family the one thing they cut out immediately is an expensive restaurant The moves are necessary because the economic downturnh hasaffected Bartolotta’s 2009 which he said was down abouyt 13 percent. He declined to reveal specific but said he plannec for a 20 percent drop based on what was happenin in other marketslast fall, such as in Las Vegas wherde his brother, Paul, runs a restaurant at the Wynn Las “We built our models based on 20 percen t less revenue,” he said. we haven’t hit that level. We’re pretty happy with (only being down 13 percent).
As I hear from other people, that is not so The segment of his business that has seen the biggestg decline are corporate events held at his restaurantz and through his caterin g company at Discovery World at Pier Wisconsin andMilwaukeew County’s Boerner Botanical Gardens. “There has been an enormouzs corporate pullback,” he said. “Havinvg fun and entertaining are not very politically correctrightt now.” Bartolotta said the downturn forced him to cut employees. But he also has taken steps to strengthenhis organization, such as hiring a chief financialo officer, putting together expanded marketing programs and addingy menu items.
“We’ve come up with some strategies that I thinki have workedreally well,” he said. “If is important to remain calm and not I think when you show panic inyour face, your employees pick up on that.” The one thing that Bartolotta has not done is lowefr his prices. His high-priced restaurants have added items suchas pre-fixerd meals of four courses for $40. “The knee-jerk reaction is when thered is a downturn inthe economy, you immediately want to discount because you think it will drive busineses in,” he said. “My philosophty is that you are just trainingg your customer to be able to tradde down and buy at alower level.
Then when pricesx go up in the marketplace, which they always do, and you’vse lowered your prices, your margins get crushed even It is just adeath spiral.” Bartolotta said any consideref change has been measured by its impacty on customers. “Anything that would negatively affect the guestr experience is simply offthe table,” he said. “We don’tt mess with it. It is important that we maintain that relationshilp withour guests. Everything else is fair game.” Having a solifd and well-known brand will help a companhy throughthe recession, Bartolotta said.
“Whenj people have limited resources and they are going out for thatspeciaol occasion, they want to know that they are goin to a place they can trust and believs in,” he said. “Oudr brand is so solid and it will carryu us through thehard
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